Stephan Bonnar Considered Himself Retired Before Accepting Anderson Silva Fight

Stephan Bonnar (14-7) was ready to call it a career if he wasn’t able to secure a third fight with Forrest Griffin (19-7), before the UFC offered him the chance to fight to Anderson Silva (32-4).

“Honestly, in my mind, I was retired,” said Bonnar on MMA Junkie. “I wasn’t going to fight again if I couldn’t get something like that. I really wasn’t. I tried hard. I went on a lot of TV shows and was in a lot of articles and even in my talk with Dana he was like, ‘That ain’t happening.’ So it’s like, ‘Damn, looks like I’m hanging it up.’”

After injuries to Jose Aldo (21-1) and Quinton Jackson (32-10) caused the company to alter the two main fights for UFC 153, Bonnar was posed with a possible fight against Silva. At first, Bonnar didn’t think the fight would come to fruition. That thought quickly passed.

“I got another text from [my manager] asking how I’d feel about fighting Anderson, and I laughed,” said Bonnar. “Like, ‘Yeah. Good luck trying to pull that one off.’ By Thursday night, it was everywhere, and I couldn’t believe it. I played a little phone tag Friday and got ahold of [Dana White], and low and behold, it was true.”

Bonnar and Silva will fight at UFC 153 in the main event on October 13. The fight will only be three rounds, but that doesn’t faze Bonnar.

“It really went from me being retired to the biggest fight I could ever dream of having,” said Bonnar. “Life is funny sometimes.”